Posted
by
Soulskill
on Thursday April 22, 2010 @02:36AM
from the done-and-done dept.

Vamman writes "If you've been following the drama surrounding the free release of MechWarrior4, then you're probably aware that the initial announcement, made last summer, was a bit premature. Now, nearly a year since that announcement was made, MekTek Studios has announced that Microsoft Legal has given clearance for the free release of Mechwarrior4. This move by Microsoft Games couldn't come at a better time for the community, as the owners of MechWarrior are attempting a reboot of the franchise."

Releasing the one-before-last as freeware seems a pretty sensible move for anyone marketing a franchise (yes, I know that MS aren't the ones pushing the new MW to market, but this is still relevant).

Releasing Bioshock 3? Put Bioshock 1 out as freeware. You're not going to lose any money, the people who were going to buy it won't wait 3 years just to get it free (especially when you've already released 2). All you do is potentially pull more people into the game who will take a look at it and think "hmm, if I like this one that's 3 years old, maybe I'll like the one they're about to release".

Developers are starting to talk about not wanting to release demos, and instead going with payware. This would allow multiple tiers of demo-type experience for the consumer. For example, with Mass Effect 3, it could work like this:

Tier 1: Freeware of ME1, released onto BitTorrent or equivalent to minimize distribution costTier 2: Payware demo from the current release (perhaps including a full-access version of ME 2)Tier 3: Full-cost version of ME3

This may be the way forward. I might be okay with losing demos, if I'm going to be able to see previous versions of the game in freeware form.

I'm not sure that's necessarily true - I've been able to easily find Doom and Monkey Island "free" for many years, and even downloaded and played the first Monkey Island through again about five years ago, but that hasn't stopped me playing these again on the 360 (admittedly ME has updated graphics, but it's essentially the same game). The key thing is pricing, people don't want to pay a fortune for such old games, but offer them at a pocket money price and plenty of people will re-buy them. Of course if they do polish the original a little they give an added reason to buy.